Responsibility
by Zaria Lianna
Summary: Two years after Infinity War, the Avengers are beginning to be a team again, and their favorite member is Spider-Man. The only problem (which they aren't letting be a problem at all) is that only Tony Stark knows who he is beneath the mask. But it's Team Bonding Day and someone forgot to tell the idiot geniuses.


**So I always see fanfics where the Avengers reunite, whether permanently or just for one mission, where they find out Peter's age and scold Tony for drafting a kid into their fights. But I never see any where Tony explains to them the logic that justifies his decision. And yes, I know that it seemed he only drafted Spidey for the Civil War, but the suit was already built. I think Tony had plans for recruiting Peter before everything went to hell and decided, for reasons that will be explained in the story below, that that fight would be the perfect opportunity.**

 **My math for Peter's age may not be entirely accurate, but this is how it is. Homecoming was 6 months after Civil War, and in Homecoming he said he was 15. So I think in Civil War he was probably 14. I read that Infinity War was three years after Homecoming, which puts Peter in senior year, or 18 years old. This takes place two years after Infinity War, so Peter is 20. However, with his babyface, the team will initially think he is much younger.**

 **Also, I am not an engineer. Not even in a career adjacent to engineer-adjacent (yes, that word is there twice. Just to show just how little I know what I am talking about) but in this fic, Tony and Peter are talking about preferred metals for a project. I did some (probably shitty) googling, and just chose a type of metal that sounds good. So please don't bother correcting. I know if they used it they would probably die.**

* * *

Six months after The Snap, the chaos had finally died down. The Avengers were back and better than ever, with more numbers than before. They now included the original six, Ant-Man, Black Panther, Bucky Barnes, Vision, Wanda Maximoff, War Machine, the Falcon, Doctor Strange, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and everybody's unofficial favorite, Spider-Man.

Most of the time, though, Doctor Strange preferred to pretend their partnership to defeat Thanos had never happened, saying he couldn't, and they quote, "deal with the utter morons that make up the group of over-grown children that somehow have garnered a reputation as the scariest fuckers you never want to go up against." The Guardians, too, were hardly ever seen with the main group, as they were always traveling the galaxy, deciding on a day by day basis whether they wanted to break the law or enforce it. T'challa and Thor had their people to rule and protect, and as such, could not afford to spend all their time with the rest, but would pop in on occasion.

So, for a long time, about a year and a half, in fact, only Tony Stark knew who Spider-Man was under the mask. The rest of the team tried not to let that sting. After all, for all that they didn't know his name or what he looked like, they still knew him. They knew he loved sandwiches from a deli called Delmar's, they knew he loved Star Wars, they knew he was crazy smart and had invented the original web shooters and formula by himself with almost no resources. They knew that he trusted them with his life, if not with his identity, and they tried to let that be good enough for them.

None of them expected it when his identity _was_ revealed to them.

It started as a normal enough Saturday. They were, for the most part, doing their own thing. Steve was finishing up his morning jog with Bucky and Sam. Natasha and Clint were sparring in one of the lower level gyms. Scott was talking to Cassie on the phone, telling her how excited he was for her performance in the upcoming ballet recital she was going to be in. Rhodey was finishing up that days PT, with Bruce Banner supervising. As the day wore on into afternoon, though, they all wandered into the communal floor lounge area, where they, as always, found Vision and Wanda lounging on the couch waiting for them.

The team found, over the past two years since they reunited, that the best way to regain the mutually broken trust and prevent it from happening again, was to spend at least one day a week together. Whether watching movies, playing games, hitting the town, or just hanging out, they did their best to make that one day a week free for their teammates.

Now, as most of the team gathered, they only had two team members that had yet to show up. They weren't worried, though, as this was also a normal part of the Saturday routine. Tony Stark and Spider-Man could spend hours at a time in the lab. In the meantime, the rest conversed, none feeling the irritation at the tardiness that the original members used to feel all the time at Stark's lateness.

At that moment, they heard the ding of the elevator arriving and the voices of Tony and Spidey debating in exasperation and fondness which metal would be the best substitute in the event that Vibranium were to suddenly disappear. The Avengers shook their heads, and Steve was about to call to them that their argument could wait until tomorrow to see who won, but stopped at the sight that met him.

It was Tony in the argument alright, but Spider-Man was not his opponent. Instead, it was a kid who could not have been older than fourteen, fifteen if Steve really pushed the age. And yet when he spoke, Spidey's voice came out.

"Mr. Stark, I _swear_ to you, you would be crazy not to choose a titanium-beryllium hybrid. Anything else is-" The kid is cut off by Tony's spirited response.

"Completely advised as only an idiot would go with anything other than adamantium. That shit can _cut through_ vibranium-"

"It is also nearly _impossible_ to find unless you have it for bones like Wolverine does. We live in the real world. If you don't have access to vibranium, you sure as hell don't have access to adamantium."

"Ahem." Steve awkwardly clears his throat to get their attention, still unable to look away from the kid. Abruptly, they two engineers stop, looking at the gathered group like twin deers caught in headlights.

"Shit," the kid says. "Today's Saturday, isn't it?"

"Yes," replies Sam, "and who are you? I didn't think any kids had access to our floors. Unless…" A look of dawning comprehension came across his face, and the kid cringed, obviously not read for what was about to be revealed. "You're _Stark's_ kid, aren't you? I _knew_ he had to have one or two out there."

" _What?_ NO! Just- no, he's not my- Jesus, Chickadee, he's not my kid." Tony sputtered in disbelief, face redder than the Avengers had ever seen it. "No, this is Peter Parker, my intern. Also," he paused, looking toward Peter questioningly. Receiving a small, hesitant nod, he continued. "He's also Spider-Man." Blink. Group brain processing after severe shock. "Unfortunately, Underoos is about to head out and will not be around for Team Bonding Day, as he has a prior engagement he has repeatedly tried and failed to cancel that he has to get to."

"Hey, I'd like to see _you_ tell MJ that you couldn't make it to a study session for the fourth week in a row." Peter shot at Tony "Besides, finals are coming up and I need the cramming."

"Yeah, you just keep that girl away from me. I always feel like a bug about to be dissected when she looks at me. She is _terrifying_. I swear she is meeting Pepper behind my back. Now get out of here." Tony snarked back. "And I will disown you if you fail that engineering course. So, priorities."

"Whatever. Bye, everyone!" With that, Peter sped swiftly back to the elevator, sunny smile not quite hiding his anxious eyes at having been outed before he was ready, like, after graduation.

After a few moments of stunned silence, the Avengers jolted out of their stupor a the sound of Tony clapping his hands together. "So, has anyone chosen the movie yet? Because if not, I totally recommend _Justice League_. It's had some iffy reviews, but I think it's underrated. Sound good? Great."

"Uh, no, Tony. I think we need to discuss what the _hell_ we just discovered." Clint said. "Namely the fact that Spidey is a _fucking kid_. Jesus Christ, he looks fifteen, which means we fought-"

"Oh, my God." Steve looked grey. "I _dropped_ a _bridge_ on him. He was probably around _ten_ at the time! What kind of person does something like that?!"

"Okay, first of all, he was not ten at that fight, and you're lucky he didn't hear you say that or we would be dealing with puppy pouting all night. He was fourteen, and he is now twenty, so no, he is not a kid." Tony justified.

"And that makes it all better?! What were you thinking making him take part in that kind of fight? Did you not think of his safety at all?! Were you really that selfish?" This was Scott, speaking as a worried parent. Even so, he was well aware that no matter how Tony thought of him back then, they were now like father and son, so made sure to speak in past tense.

Tony's face darkened. "Excuse me? You think I was putting him in danger? Are you saying that someone on your team was fully prepared to kill old friends, no matter our differences? I thought long and hard before taking him to that battle, but here's the thing: _It had to be done._ " When it looked like people were going to object at that point, he talked louder. "I was looking into Spider-Man well before everything turned to shit. I saw the good he was doing, but I also saw he was doing it with zero protection. Have you seen his original outfit? It was literally just sweats. I didn't know who he was, but I put a lot of effort into finding him so that I could give him support, before you guys even knew a kid was out there risking himself."

Taking a deep breath, he continued. "A kid was out there fighting people with guns and knives, throwing himself in front of cars, and a million of other ridiculously stupid things, all to protect other people from getting hurt. How could I stop that, even if I _did_ have the power. Yes, I brought him into a fight with superpowered people, but it was still a controlled environment for him to see how dangerous the super world can be. No matter how pissed at each other we were, I knew neither side was aiming to kill, only subdue."

"Have you guys looked into the Vulture thing that happened a few years ago? During the entire thing, Pete was fight some guys on a ferry, Guys with _Chitauri tech_." Eyes snapped to Tony's face from their previous position of looking at the floor in shame." Yeah, really. He had warned me about them, but I gave him the impression that I wasn't worried about it. My hope was if he saw _I_ wasn't worried, then _he_ wouldn't be either. He tried taking them out by himself, but instead of that happening, the ferry they were on was split in half. Nearly gave me a fucking heart attack. So, as punishment, I took his suit away. Hopefully, I thought, if he doesn't have this suit, he'll stick with the small stuff."

Here, Tony gave a small, bitter laugh. "Yeah, right. Instead, he takes out those sweats that served as his original, crappy suit, and goes after the guy alone again. Chases him onto my plane that is mid flight, crashes it, and fights him in the midst of an _inferno._ So, no I didn't put him in dangerous situations. He was going to be in them anyway. I just made sure as hell that he'd be as safe as possible while he did it. And you know something else? The kid's favorite phrase? With great power comes great responsibility? I had the _power_ to help him. Doesn't that make it my responsibility?"

A moment of silence surrounded the dumbfounded group as they absorbed all they had learned. They had already learned over the past few years that much of what they had thought of their teammate had been a false front, a show he put on to either put distance between them or prevent them from worrying about him. But to realize that he had been feeling anxiety and worry for someone he had never even met, to the extent of giving him controlled exposure to the kind of damage that could happen to him was an entirely new level.

They stuttered out apologies that seemed inadequate to their own ears but seemed to be far more than Tony was expecting or even wanted, and something occurred to Steve it seemed.

"How many times, even with the reasons you pointed out, did you have to remind yourself that you did the right thing?" Because he did do the right thing. The world would probably be far worse off without Spider-Man, but the Avengers would probably still be split in half, and it was all thanks to Tony that Spider-Man could do what he did and still survive.

"Too many." Tony paused. "Now, are we watching a movie or not? Because seriously, I want to see how a movie company could deal with the complexities of bringing superpowered people together that are used to working independently."

The Avengers laughed and sat with him on the couch. If anyone noticed that Tony was a little closer to the center, or if they all sat nearer to each other than usual, they didn't say anything.

* * *

 **For the record, while I am mostly on Team Iron Man, my main stance is that both sides were wrong and fucking stupid about it. Yes, Cap was wrong for blowing off the Accords (I don't think he even read them) and ignoring what** _ **millions**_ **of people were saying. He was also stupid for not helping to bring Bucky in, because even though he was the tool used in many deaths, chances were something could be worked out that he could have been freed of his HYDRA programming and actually joined the team. He was also an asshole for keeping the identity of Tony's parents' murderer away from him. In the end, he just seemed to me like a chicken-shit running from taking responsibility for his actions, like a kid who broke a vase and didn't want to be grounded.**

 **However, Tony was also an idiot. Kudos to him for accepting responsibility after all the shit he's been through, but he was too quick to jump on board with the Accords. After his experience being an arms dealer and the often incompetent people he's probably dealt with in that business, as well as learning that the top law enforcement/spy agency IN THE WORLD was not free of corruption, and then there's the fact that the driving force behind the Accords is Thaddeus Ross, a man who has already proven to be, like super enhanced-phobic AND the ringleader of the "Hulk is a monster brigade," why would he think that the Accords committee would do any better? Also, I can understand that it must be devastating to find out that your parents were murdered and not just in an accident like you always thought, but he HATED his dad, and as far as I know, he wasn't that close to his mother either. So it just never seemed legit to me that he would automatically jump right into "let's kill this fucker" mode when confronted with their killer.**


End file.
